And got them switched over to SG Barking at the Moon, which Petco only had because somebody had special ordered it and not picked it up.. I switched them to this gradually from Nutro, and about 2 months later the rash still hadnt cleared up.. It did get better/lighter pink instead of deep red.. But definantly not gone..

So I switched them to Canidae Lamb and Rice, and they seem to be doing great on it.. While I was switching them, they would actually pick out the SG Barking at the Moon and drop it on the floor, and eat only the Canidae.. ( leave it to my dogs to be thrifty in their tastes)

Question being.. I was reading through the posts here, and it seems like Canidae is far from the high quality food I thought I was getting.. Dont get me wrong, I knew it wasnt a super premium or anything.. but..

So what do you think? With those allergies in mind, what are your opinions on their options? So far as I can tell, they can have

Those of you who do Raw, or cook for your dogs.. have you noticed a big difference in them? Is it possible to do this with a somewhat limited pocketbook? Especially with her allergies being chicken and turkey the two cheapest meats? Not to mention I've heard that beef is also an allergen to LOTS of dogs.. So with my luck, I'll cook for them, and Gracie will be allergic to the one thing Killian isnt... ./headdesk...

Im just looking for some suggestions.. What have you tried, what worked for you... I've noticed since switching them to Canidae Killian seems to have more energy and be more playful.. but their coats seem dull compared to what they were even on Nutro!

KilliansIrishRed wrote:Question being.. I was reading through the posts here, and it seems like Canidae is far from the high quality food I thought I was getting.. Dont get me wrong, I knew it wasnt a super premium or anything.. but..

What specifically gave you this impression? I'd love to see which posts you are referring to.

Canidae is an excellent food and a ton of people here use it with great success.

Being an allergy dog owner, and knowing how horrible the constant switching to find a good food that they don't react to is, I would stay with the Canidea. If it works for your dogs stay on it. Hell, with allergy dogs, if freaking Beneful works good for them, I would say stay on it, !

KilliansIrishRed wrote:Question being.. I was reading through the posts here, and it seems like Canidae is far from the high quality food I thought I was getting.. Dont get me wrong, I knew it wasnt a super premium or anything.. but..

What specifically gave you this impression? I'd love to see which posts you are referring to.

Canidae is an excellent food and a ton of people here use it with great success.

That post you linked to is a great starting place, but you really should keep in mind that that is only one person's opinion, and what matters most really is how your dogs are doing on the food, not how many stars someone else gave it in their own rating system.

Misskiwi67 wrote:WHY do you think your dog is allergic to those specific ingredients?

Those are the results from her blood test/allergy panel.. The vet suggested I try switching foods until I found one that worked.. With that list of allergies it would have taken me years to weed out.. So I said go for it and had the blood panel done

rgyoung777 wrote:But if your dogs are doing well on it, why fret over it?

That post you linked to is a great starting place, but you really should keep in mind that that is only one person's opinion, and what matters most really is how your dogs are doing on the food, not how many stars someone else gave it in their own rating system.

They are both doing well on it, other than their coats getting pretty dull
( which could be because of the season)

I just wanted to get some opinions and experiences with other foods, including raw/cooked at home, to make sure I'm giving them the best I can..

The blood panels are great for environmental allergies, but they're worthless for foods... sorry to break it to you.

Your dog is probably not allergic to even half of those ingredients.

To determine what your dog IS allergic to, you need to get a SINGLE PROTEIN SINGLE CARBOHYDRATE diet. This should be a diet your dog has NEVER eaten. If you have cats, don't feed a fish based diet as many cat foods and cat treats contain fish. If you've fed diets that contain venison, buffalo, lamb or any other "exotic" ingredient, you can't use those either.

Feed this diet and NOTHING ELSE for a MINIMUM of 12 weeks. This means no flavored treats, no rawhide, no cheese, no people food, no flavored medications (no heartguard) no pig ears, no hot dogs, no countersurfing, no cat food, no NOTHING but the chosen diet.

Then after the 12 weeks, if she has improved, you can begin adding in the "suspect" ingredients and see if she shows a reaction to the new foods. If you do not see any improvement, you dog was probably never allergic to foods to begin with.

During this 12 week period, you need to control ALL secondary bacterial and yeast infections... so work closely with your derm-savvy vet.

The psycho holistic pet store guy in my area steers everyone away from timberwolf and toward canidae, even tho he sells timberwolf for twice the money. He says he won't even stock wellness anymore because it's so cruddy.

I have allergy-prone Horace and Hazel on Canidae lamb and rice and it works great for them, and when I fed Timberwolf I had to take them out for like 7 poops a day. And they weren't the best poops, either!

Have you considered supplementing with salmon oil? I know that often improves the coat, as well as having many other benefits.

If their energy is up, and everything else is going well, I really wouldn't worry too much about their coats, but you might try the salmon oil if you're concerned.

I swore by Timberwolf for a few years, and my dog did extremely well on it for most of that time, but last year, she began to have reflux-type reactions to it, regardless of the formula I fed. So we switched to Nature's Variety prairie venison, and haven't looked back since. She's had zero issues with the new food, even though it's of inferior quality to the TW, according to that list. I'm not recommending NV to you, just pointing out that different foods work for different dogs, regardless of the rating systems we devise.

Last edited by rgyoung777 on Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

KilliansIrishRed wrote:They are both doing well on it, other than their coats getting pretty dull ( which could be because of the season)

Add in fish oil. I use Grizzly Salmon Oil and they gleam!

Also, there was another thread I saw once where there was a point system for all different foods and foods over a certain number of total points were given A+ grades. I'm sure Canidae earned a high score on that. Does anybody remember that post?